Rampage lose to Wolves — Dec. 18 Bonus Coverage

A pair of former Rampage players keyed the Chicago Wolves to a 2-1 win over San Antonio at the AT&T Center Thursday night.

Veteran defenseman Jamie Rivers scored the go ahead goal just 1:04 into the second period, and goaltender Brent Krahn made it stand up with 21 saves the rest of the way, 35 on the night, for his second straight win over the Rampage.

Rivers’ blueline wrister evaded screened Rampage netminder Josh Tordjman, who barely moved as the shot zipped by and caught the inside of the right post.

“It’s my job trying to get pucks through to the net,” said Rivers, a member of the inaugural Rampage team 2002-03.

“We have too many passengers. We have some guys that are really going hard and some guys who aren’t,” Rampage coach Greg Ireland said. “It isn’t about wins and losses at this point. What we’re talking here is digging our way out of this, guys getting an opportunity of being called up and they just can’t go through the motions.”

Krahn, on loan to the Wolves from the Dallas Stars organization, limited the Rampage to only one goal for the second straight game since returning to the AHL.

“The guys played really well in front of me both games. It’s a fun team to play for,” said Krahn, who went 3-7-1 with San Antonio in a year after Rivers put in time in the Alamo City.

The Rampage had a chance to tie the game with Tordjman pulled for the extra skater, but Krahn made a big stop with less than 30 seconds left in regulation.

“(The shot) went right in front of my legs, the d-man came and swatted it away and it was just follow the bouncing puck, lucky that the puck missed the net,” said Krahn on the last-second San Antonio attempt.

Tordjman lost for the first time in seven starts and kept the Rampage close with big saves down the stretch against Chicago’s power play.

San Antonio’s Chad Kolarik scored his 10th goal of the season just 1:42 into the game on the power play off Brett MacLean’s rebound. “Lucky goal, go to the net, good things happen.”

Kolarik also hit a goal post in the third period as the Rampage pressured for the equalizer. “We had quite a few chances tonight, we hit posts, we have to keep shooting, sometimes they don’t go in, sometimes they do.”

Although no more good things happened for the Rampage on the scoreboard, Rivers knows the best way to beat San Antonio.

“We respect them. If you take them lightly too long in a hockey game, they’re gonna score, they’re gonna make you look stupid,” said the veteran of 454 NHL games.

More Post-game Quotes!

David Spina on the disappointing loss

“We can’t expect to beat a team like Chicago, who won it all last year, by playing mediocre. The last couple of weeks you saw us play Manitoba and Hershey and you play like that against this team we have nothing to worry about. We didn’t play as well as we can. We did the same thing up at their place last time. We came out flat, we’re not stringing together shift after shift of dominating the play. That’s what happens, they get two pretty fortunate goals, we get about three posts and I run into a ref on a breakaway.”

Jamie Rivers on the Wolves

“You look at our roster we still have some pretty talented guys. I know we don’t have Haydar and Krog, but we have Mottsko and Hamilton — not too bad to fill in with those guys. We still have Sterling. I think we’re fine. We played a different style, we still win hockey games, we’re still in first place. Can’t argue with that.”

Brent Krahn on backstopping the Wolves

“It’s a fun team to play for; I’ve played against them five years and been on the receiving end some really brutal beatings and its nice to be in the net for these guys.”

Greg Ireland

“We’ve got to be stronger in our purpose, be good in our game plan, firm in our discipline and we weren’t disciplined tonight. But it was a game that was there for us and we let it slip away. We gave up only eight scoring chances and four goaltender is that good, you know what, it’s a game you better bear down and win.”

Game Stars from Coach

“(Goertzen)’s been playing real well for us. He’s a good leader, at least by example. You look at other guys like Brett MacLean was getting his feet going and driving; Chad Kolarik had a spunky game; Joel Perrault, who’s had 19 shots in the last three games (and he’s had another 19 miss the net), he’s shooting. I think that down in that stretch where we were not just winning, we were good as a team and tonight we didn’t have everyone going in a game that was right there for us to go after. We need everybody going to be good as a group. We need our defense playing strong, moving the puck, forwards coming back and being good defensively and we need them being predictable offensively.”